Translation of abstract (English)

Starting from evidence of no age-related decline in life satisfaction in old age, frequently coined as the “paradox” of subjective well being and typically derived from cross-sectional age-group comparisons, change in satisfaction judgements across late adulthood was analyzed longitudinally. In particular, the following hypotheses able to explain or differentiate the paradox have been examined: (1) Overlapping negative age and cohort effects, (2) increased variability of the elders' satisfaction judgements caused by frequent changes in positive and negative direction, (3) lifelong high stability of satisfaction judgements as well as (4) increased stability in old age. Longitudinal random effects models and autoregressive structural equation models (so-called Quasi-Markov simplex) were applied to analyze these effects. Annually repeated satisfaction ratings included in the German Socio-Economic Panel from 1984 to 1999 served as the empirical basis. Results support the assumption of an overlap of a negative age effect with a negative effect of year of birth, as well as high relative stability (i.e. tendency to maintain relative position) of satisfaction judgements, not related to respondents’ age. The negative age effect on older adults’ life satisfaction found longitudinally (decline in mean levels) challenges the paradox of subjective well being.